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As a graphic designer, Mendel has worked on various genre shows, including The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, and the 2005 film Serenity, a spin-off the cult sci-fi series Firefly. He was also a graphic designer for the series V.I.P. and the films Spider-Man 2 (starring Kirsten Dunst), Yours, Mine and Ours, and Lucky You (starring Eric Bana). His other graphic design credits include the TV shows JAG and NCIS and the films Mission: Impossible III (directed by J.J. Abrams) and Blades of Glory.

Other projects on which he has worked include the films Jingle All the Way, X-Men (starring Bruce Davison, Famke Janssen, and Patrick Stewart), Solaris, Timeline, and Soul Plane, the TV shows VIP, Arli$$, Kingpin, Numb3rs, and 24, and the TV movie The Pentagon Wars. He most recently worked on the FX series Dirt, on which he is credited as the show's graphic designer.

In addition to the above, Mandel directed his own short film in 1991, called Kill the Director. In 2000, he was the production designer on an independent film called Alcatraz Avenue for Lather Rinse Repeat Productions.

Afterward, Mandel became a scenic artist on Star Trek: Voyager during the latter half of the show's sixth season, beginning with the episode "Fury". He continued working on the show throughout its seventh and final season, after which he moved on to Star Trek: Enterprise, working on that show's first season before departing the franchise.

On both Voyager and Enterprise, the scenic artist credit was rotated weekly between Mandel and his fellow scenic artists on the show, meaning that Mandel worked on more than just the episodes for which he is credited. For example, on the first season of Enterprise, the scenic artist credit rotated between Mandel and Anthony Fredrickson, yet both contributed to every episode of that season. (See the credits section below for a list of episodes in which Mandel received credit.)

In 2007 Mandel contributed approximately two months of (uncredited) work to the production of J.J. Abrams' re-invigoration of the Star Trekalternate universe film franchise, simply titled Star Trek. One of only two known prime universeStar Trek studio production staff veterans to work on the re-imagined live-action franchise, it was only his former colleague John Eaves, who continued to do so.

His involvement with Star Trekfandom dates back to the mid-1970s, when he ran the fan club UNISTAR in New York City and penned and published his own detailed blueprints of vessels from both the original series and the animated series. It was during this period that he met Doug Drexler, who was running his Star Trek store in Manhattan, New York – "The Federation Trading Post" – and with whom Mandel compiled one of the first technical reference works in Trek history: the USS Enterprise Officer's Manual.

Before he started working on Star Trek, in 1980, he collaborated with several people on the Star Trek Maps. In 2002, Mandel wrote and illustrated the Star Trek: Star Charts, which could be considered an update to the original Star Trek Maps.